This invention relates to a speaker support bar that provides a rigid mount for a pair of speakers above a vehicle headliner and also provides a sound chamber to improve acoustic quality.
Headliners provide interior trim on the ceiling of vehicles. Typically, headliners are made from a relatively non-rigid material. Headliners thus do not have the ability to support heavy loads. More recently, there has been emphasis on reducing the weight and cost of the headliner, thus, even further reducing its ability to support loads.
Speakers for vehicle sound systems have typically been mounted in door panels, or the rear deck of a vehicle. Speakers have been mounted in the ceiling of a vehicle only in a few narrow applications. For the most part, the known attempts to mount speakers in the ceiling of a vehicle have required a rigid support structure, beneath the headliner, and extending into the passenger compartment. These support structures detract from the otherwise uniform appearance of a headliner, and thus, are undesirable.
Moreover, the known speaker supports have typically required assembly at the vehicle assembly line separate from the headliner. Vehicle manufacturers would like to increase flexibility in the number of assembly steps that occur at a vehicle assembly line. Thus, modular constructions that may be pre-assembled at a supplier location and then shipped as an assembled unit to the vehicle assembly line are desirable. Typically, the known speaker supports have not facilitated pre-assembly of a vehicle ceiling sub-assembly.